This blog presents news items and resources relating to trial advocacy and the legal system, with a focus on Washington State. It was developed to support the Trial Advocacy Program at the University of Washington School of Law, but now has a broader coverage and a wider audience. In addition to information about trials and trial practice, you'll find notes about appellate practice, the courts, access to justice, and related topics.

Friday, January 30, 2009

uvenile students accused of chronically cutting classes in public schools are entitled to a lawyer in their first court hearing, a three-judge panel of the Washington state Court of Appeals ruled Monday.

Reversing a King County Superior Court ruling and an earlier Court of Appeals finding that was made on different issues, the panel found that denying a juvenile the right to a lawyer from the outset violated constitutional requirements.

The challenge is that careful studies are hard to summarize in one or two sentences, because you need to talk about the study design, the size of the sample, the limits of the findings, and so on. (I often run into that when I try to summarize an article here!)

The first example the writer gives is from a case in August when a reporter from the Spokesman Review (Spokane) reported from the courtroom -- quick sentences, posted a minute or two apart. See this page.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

A former senior official at the Justice Department routinely hired Republicans, Federalist Society members and “R.T.A.’s” — “Right-Thinking Americans”— for what were supposed to be nonpolitical posts and gave them plum assignments on civil rights cases, an internal department report released Tuesday found.

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The report goes beyond the conclusions of three previous internal Justice Department inquiries in exposing the depths of political interference with personnel decisions. The conclusions of the latest inquiry, the first to focus on the Civil Rights Division, are likely to figure in the Senate hearing Thursday for Eric H. Holder Jr.’s confirmation as attorney general.

The Bush administration has issued a ruling that illegal immigrants do not have a constitutional right to effective legal representation in deportation hearings, closing off one of the most common avenues for appealing deportation decisions.

The ruling, by Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey, concerns three appeals by people ordered to be deported who said their cases had been hurt by mistakes by their lawyers. Mr. Mukasey wrote in an opinion released late Wednesday that “neither the Constitution nor any statutory or regulatory provision entitles an alien to a do-over if his initial removal proceeding is prejudiced by the mistakes of a privately retained lawyer.”

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

A Hooters waitress was badly bruised in a domestic assault. She and her supervisor agreed she shouldn't work for a while. Then she was fired. When she sought unemployment compensation, Hooters said that her failure to maintain a "glamourous appearance" was workplace misconduct. An administrative law judge awarded her benefits. Benefits awarded to beaten Hooters waitress | The Des Moines Register , Jan. 5, 2009.

Many of Mr. Obama’s picks in other cabinet departments have taken on a decidedly centrist bent. But at the Justice Department, where controversial Bush administration policies like interrogation tactics and eavesdropping will come under review, the nomination of Eric H. Holder Jr. as attorney general last month and Monday’s selections of four top aides suggested a strong effort to stake out a new direction.

For instance, Ms. Johnsen, who would provide legal interpretations to the entire Obama administration, did not try to hide her disdain for recent counterterrorism initiatives in a law review article last year titled: “What’s a President to Do: Interpreting the Constitution in the Wake of the Bush Administration’s Abuses.”

And, while looking to the next administration, let's take a moment to mark the passing of President Carter's Attorney General: Griffin Bell, Ex-Attorney General, Dies at 90, N.Y. Times, Jan. 5, 2009. Bell's memoir is available in the library: Taking Care of the Law, by Griffin B. Bell with Ronald J. Ostrow (KF373.B42 A37 1982 at Classified Stacks).

With the help of OoVoo, an Internet-based videoconferencing and chat application, Pima County Judge Jose Luis Castillo Jr. has begun allowing witnesses to testify remotely via the Web instead of coming into court.

The technology is being used in civil hearings, including traffic infractions.